1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to still and motion picture cameras, including VCRs, and more particularly to cameras which provide a black and white viewfinder.
2. Description of Related Art
The field of photography has a long and colorful history, characterized by constant innovation and development and the long exposure times and pyrotechnics of the past have been replaced by digital cameras and camcorders. Optical viewfinders permit a photographer to see a representation of the image which will be captured on film when a photograph is taken. In some cameras, viewfinders have followed a separate optical path from that of the image for the film. Single lens reflex cameras have been developed which permit a viewer to see in an optical viewfinder the same image that would be projected upon the film when the picture was snapped.
Motion cameras have included cameras for film and TV. In addition, consumer video cameras have become widely distributed.
Early color television cameras featured black and white electronic viewfinders, mainly because the cost of a color display was significant in comparison to the cost of a color electronic target for capturing a color image. Thus, economics dictated that a lower cost black and white viewfinder display the image which was being captured on a color target.
The Problems
Photographers working in or learning to work in black and white (either using film or electronic still cameras) face the problem of seeing the world in color, then having to mentally translate it into black and white. Typically, the number of settings actually implemented on a camera have been less than the number of possible settings, perhaps in part due to the fact that the more variables that are introduced, the more difficult it is for a photographer to maintain a mental model of the impact of changes upon the ultimate image produced on film or on an electronic medium.
The prior art does not offer electronic viewfinders on still cameras and particularly not a black and white electronic viewfinder. Further, the prior art does not appear to have offered electronic viewfinders on any type of film camera, still or motion. Further, the prior art does not offer a black and white option for color viewfinders to enable a photographer to work in black and white.